1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique which manages counter information accumulated according to an execution of a job in an image forming apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Until now, in general, counter information indicating the number of printed sheets has been acquired from an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine so as to be used for periodical charging and maintenance work. For the charging, department charging and user charging have widely prevailed.
A case is assumed where printing is performed by an image forming apparatus while counter information for each department/user and total counter information are sequentially acquired from an external apparatus via a network. In this case, the sum of the acquired counter information for each department/user is not consistent with the total counter information. The counter information in which such inconsistency occurs is inappropriate to be used for charging to a user.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-18500 discusses a technique which ensures that a charging counter is not acquired while printing is being performed. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-18500, total counter information is first acquired and then a counter required for charging is acquired and the total counter information is acquired again. If there is no difference between the former and the latter total counter information, the charging counter is regarded as effective.
Although the above conventional technique is capable of acquiring counter information appropriate for use in charging, delay in acquiring appropriate counter information sometimes occurs while a user is performing a large amount of printing in acquiring a counter, for example. Then, it seems to be desirable to provide a different technique for acquiring the appropriate counter information without delay due to job processing such as printing and copying.